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Shelby Sued: Not the other way around, this time

Usually, Shelby lawsuit headlines announce that Shelby is suing someone, but here's one where someone is suing Shelby Automobiles, Inc.

Stephen Becker has been an authorized Shelby dealer since 2007, having sold and delivered 49 cars between 2007 and 2010, according to the suit. Becker has sold various Shelby cars for many years before that, and says he knew Carroll Shelby as early as 1977. Carroll Shelby died May 10, 2012.

Last year, the suit says, Shelby Automobiles, Inc. stopped buying car bodies from a Mexican supplier and started buying them from one in South Africa. The suit also says that Shelby raised prices on cars and failed to deliver cars that were ordered.

“As of July 2012, [the] plaintiff still had not received 10 or 12 Cobras . . . it had ordered and four of five Anniversary Cars it had ordered 20 months earlier and which SAI (Shelby Automobiles, Inc.) had promised to deliver no later than December 2011,” the suit alleges.

It also says Shelby Automobiles, Inc. told Becker that none of the cars ordered was ready to be shipped and that there was no shipping date set for them.

Further, Becker's suit claims that Shelby American is taking retaliatory measures against him because he challenged the price increase, and that Shelby American is planning to resell the cars that Becker ordered for his customers to other buyers at the increased price.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks for delivery of some of the cars in question.

Joe Conway, president of Carroll Shelby International, said the suit has “no basis…zero credibility to it.”

“It's a shame that [Becker] resorted to such a position after everything Mister Shelby did for him,” Conway said. “Mister Shelby personally loaned Mister Becker money to stay in business.”

Conway did not address any specific claims in the suit.

In a prepared release, Shelby International stated: "The press release issued by Planet Cobra is a libelous document issued by a dealer who entered into a dealer agreement with Shelby American over four years ago and made substantial profits on orders for Cobra vehicles. Now unfortunately he finds it necessary to sue after Shelby demanded payment on past due invoices.

“In 2010, Carroll Shelby personally made a substantial personal loan to Mr. Steven Becker, the owner of Planet Cobra, to help him meet his financial obligations. If Mr. Shelby were alive today, he would be terribly disappointed with Mr. Becker.

“Shelby American will vigorously defend the fictitious claims set forth in Planet Cobra's press release and lawsuit, which reads like it came from a different planet,” the statement said.

"Stephen Becker Automotive Group alleges in its complaint that Shelby Automobiles defrauded it by inducing it to enter into a Cobra dealership agreement and then, when the dealership invested its capital and ordered several Cobras, pocketing the dealership's money. Stephen Becker Automotive company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for high-ticket Cobra vehicles, but Shelby Automobiles shelved the orders and did not produce the ordered vehicles for years, and in some cases not at all.

"Stephen Becker Automotive also alleges that Shelby Automobiles then tried to force it out of business so that Shelby Automotive could sell the ordered vehicles to other parties for even more money."